Missing
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: The entire CSI team races to find a missing teenager and one CSI could pay the ultimate price during the investigation. Please R&R, I will update as soon as possible!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to CSI

**Missing**

Nick Stokes, Greg Sanders, Sara Sidle, and Ray Langston were in the conference room waiting for their supervisor Catherine Willows to come in and give them their assignments for the night. She walked in and looked at her team.

"Alright guys, we are all working the same case tonight."

She laid a photo of a young girl on the table

"Kyla Hamilton, 17, went out with friends and disappeared. She's been missing 6 hours now and her mother is frantic, she's insisting that her daughter would not just take off." She was last seen at Burger 17, you know that restaurant for underage kids that has dancing and doesn't allow alcohol. The two friends she was with told her mother that they ran to the bathroom and Kyla stayed and watched their purses and when they came back, their purses were there but Kyla was gone. Nick, Sara and Greg you go to her house and get more information from her mother. Also make sure to get something with her DNA on it so if we find some DNA we will have something to compare it to. Make sure to also get the names of her two friends so we can question them. See if her mom will let you look around in Kyla's room, maybe you can find something that will give us a clue to what happened to her. I'll go with Ray to Burger 17 to see if they have surveillance camera's, if they do have camera's it may very well be a huge help."

"You got it boss." Nick said.

The three of them left and headed to the Hamilton house. It didn't take the CSI'S very long to arrive, when they got there Nick rang the doorbell. A woman answered the door. Her eyes were red from crying

"Hi Ma'ma, I'm Nick Stokes and these are my colleagues Greg Sanders and Sara Sidle, we are with the Las Vegas crime lab. We are working your daughters' case.

"Did you find her yet?" Kyla's mother Brenda Hamilton asked immediately.

"No Ma'ma unfortunately we haven't, may we come in, we would like to ask you a few questions."

"Of course" She said opening the door.

She led them to the couch and the three CSI'S sat down on the couch while Brenda sat opposite them in the love seat.

"Mrs. Hamilton…" Nick began but Brenda cut him off.

"Please, call me Brenda." She said.

Nick offered her a warm smile which she returned.

"Brenda, is there any reason at all that Kyla would want to leave?"

"No absolutely not, Mr. Stokes, please you have to believe me, she is not missing because she wants to be. She is a straight A student, she is on the track team, and she volunteers at the hospital. She is set to graduate in just a few weeks, and she has a full ride scholarship to WLVU in the fall. She just went out to have some fun with her friends. She was only going to be gone a couple hours, it's a school night and Kyla never stays out late on a school night. She is very responsible, I never even have to ask her if she has her homework completed because she does it on her own, I never have to worry about it. Most importantly she always lets me know where she is, and she calls me even if she is going to be just a few minutes late getting home."

"How is your relationship with Kyla?" Greg asked.

"We have a wonderful relationship, we tell each other everything. My husband passed away when Kyla was only two years old, ever since then it has just been the two of us. We have the kind of relationship that most mothers of teenage daughters can only dream of."

"Brenda, can you think of anyone that would want to hurt Kyla for any reason?" Sara asked.

"No, everyone loves her." She answered.

"Does Kyla have a boyfriend?" Greg asked.

"No" Brenda said.

"Does she have any ex-boyfriends?" Nick asked.

"No" she said then she laughed a little "Kyla is too busy with school, and her extra-curricular activities to have time for boys." She said.

"Brenda, we are going to need something with Kyla's DNA on it, her comb, toothbrush, anything like that." Sara said.

"I'll be right back" Brenda said hurrying out of the room.

She came back moments later with a comb. She handed the comb to Sara then sat down on the love seat and began to sob.

"We are going to do everything we can to find her." Sara said immediately going over to her and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

The distraught mother took several deep breaths "I'm sorry" she said.

"It's quite alright." Greg said.

He gave her a few moments to regain her composure before he asked "Brenda, do you know which friends Kyla went out with tonight?"

"Yes, her two best friends, Shelley King and Reese Adams."

"Do you have their contact information?" Greg asked.

"Yes, hold on just a minute." Brenda said as she quickly got up and left the room.

She came back with a piece of paper in her hand. "Here you go." Mr. Sanders she said handing the paper to Greg.

On the paper were 2 phone numbers, the top one had the name Shelley next to it and the bottom one had the name Reese.

"Thank you." Greg said.

"One more thing Brenda, would it be alright if we take a look around Kyla's room, it might offer some clues to what happened to her?" Nick asked.

"Sure do whatever you think will help. Her room is up the stairs, 2nd door on the left." Brenda said.

The three CSI'S nodded and headed up the stairs. Kyla's room looked like a typical teenage girl's room. Posters of a few bands were hung up around the room, a bright pink paint color covered the walls as well as pink bedding on the bed. A bright blue prom dress hung on the closet door.

"Pretty dress." Sara commented.

"Prom is next weekend, Kyla and I just bought that dress this past week." Brenda said appearing in the doorway.

She then quickly had to leave the room as she once again began to cry uncontrollably.

They searched her room for over an hour and found nothing that could help them in their investigation, although they all agreed that it would be a good idea to take her laptop back to the lab and take a look at its contents. When they had completed searching her room Nick carried the laptop downstairs

"Brenda, can we take Kyla's laptop back to the lab with us, it could provide us important information about what happened to her."

"Yes, please take whatever you need." She said.

"Thank you for all of your cooperation." Nick said.

She nodded and as the CSI'S were leaving she made a plea to them. With her eyes once again brimming with tears she said "Please find her, she is the sweetest person you would ever want to meet, she is my entire life, and I don't know what I would do without her." The tears that were in her eyes were now rolling down her cheeks.

"We are going to do everything we possibly can to find her and bring her home, I promise you." Nick said and then added "We will keep you informed with the investigation, if you have any questions do not hesitate to call us, or if you think of anything else that could be useful please let us know."

Brenda promised them she would call them if she thought of anything. As she watched the CSI'S leave Brenda felt as if she were in a nightmare, this could not really be happening. But the hard truth was that it was actually happening, her daughter was missing. She was at least comforted by the fact that she trusted the investigators; Mr. Stokes, Ms. Sidle and Mr. Sanders genuinely seemed to care about finding her daughter.

**To Be Continued**


	2. Chapter 2

**Missing**

**Chapter 2**

On the way back to the lab Sara's cell phone rang.

"Sidle" she said.

"Sara, it's Catherine where are you guys?"

"We are just on our way back to the lab now." Sara answered.

"What did you find out at the Hamilton house?" She asked.

"Well we didn't find anything that would indicate where she is, but we got the names and numbers of her friends she was out with, as well as her comb for DNA comparative purposes. We are also bringing her laptop back to the lab with us, maybe that will tell us something. Oh and the poor girl's mother, Brenda, is devastated, and she was very cooperative." Sara said filling her in.

Then Sara asked "Did the restaurant have surveillance video?"

"Yeah both inside and outside of the restaurant, the only problem is that it is not very good quality, it's very grainy so we are going to see if Archie can enhance it for us." Catherine said.

"I'm glad they had cameras." Sara said.

"So am I. Ray and I just got back to the lab so we will see you guys when you get here." Catherine said.

"Ok, goodbye." Sara said hanging up the phone.

"Did they get any surveillance?" Nick asked as soon as Sara was off the phone.

"Yeah but the quality is bad, hopefully Archie can work his magic." She answered.

Nick nodded in agreement.

When they arrived back at the lab the entire team met in the conference room.

"You guys work on the surveillance, I am going to go look through her laptop, let me know how Archie does with the video." Nick said, getting up and walking out of the room.

He went into a quiet lab room and got to work. To his dismay he found nothing that could help locate her, but her social networking pages seemed to fully support what Brenda Hamilton had told them, Kyla seemed happy and very well liked by her friends and peers. After he was finished with the laptop he went to go find the others. He found them all huddled behind Archie.

"Hey Nicky, find anything on the laptop?" Catherine asked as he entered.

"No, I struck out, how's the video coming?" He asked.

"Arch is still trying to get it clearer for us." She said.

After about 5 more minutes Archie said "That's as good as I can get it."

Although not the clearest video, it was very much useable. It showed Kyla sitting at a table in the restaurant and she was alone. Then a boy came up to Kyla's table. He looked to be about Kyla's age. The two began talking, it appeared that Kyla knew the young man. Then they went outside and continued talking. Kyla seemed to go with him willingly, she didn't appear to be under any duress. Then the young man whispered something into Kyla's ear and her body language changed, she tensed immediately. Her face showed an expression of terror. She followed the boy to the parking lot. He got into the drivers side of a black car while she got into the passenger seat, the video caught the car leaving the parking lot before disappearing out of view.

"I think that bastard threatened her." Nick said.

"Yeah, I think you're right Nick." Sara said.

"Archie, play that again." Nick instructed.

Archie did and after they had watched the video Nick asked "It didn't look to me like he had a weapon, did any of you see one?" He asked.

His colleagues all shook their heads no. They watched the video one more time just to make sure but still nobody saw a weapon. Unfortunately, they were unable to get a view of the license plate because of the poor video quality.

"Great, now how the hell are we going to find this car?" Nick said growing frustrated, but before anyone could answer Greg's pager went off

"That's Brass, he says that the two friends Kyla was last seen with have arrived to talk to me. I contacted them and asked them if they would come in so they could give their accounts of what happened, they both readily agreed to help any way they could. When I am finished questioning the girls I will ask them to watch the video, maybe they can identify the boy in the video." He said before quickly leaving the room.

After Greg had left the room Catherine turned to Nick and said "call Mrs. Hamilton and have her come down to the lab, maybe she can help shed some light on who this boy is."

Nick nodded and called Brenda immediately. Brenda said she would be there as soon as she could.

When Greg got to the interrogation room the girls were already sitting down waiting for his arrival.

"Hi girls, my name is Greg Sanders, I am one of the investigators that are trying to find Kyla." He said.

The girls introduced themselves.

"Ok, tell me exactly what happened." Greg said.

"We had to go to the bathroom and Kyla didn't so I suggested she stay and watch our belongings at the table." Reese Adams said.

"Then what happened?" Greg asked.

"We went to the bathroom and when we got back Kyla was gone." Shelley said.

"Was Kyla's purse still there or was it gone as well?" Greg asked.

"Her purse was there with ours." Shelley said.

"Was her cell phone in her purse, or does she have that with her?" He asked.

"It's in her purse, and Kyla doesn't go anywhere without her phone." Shelley said.

"When you got back to the table and she wasn't there, what did you girls do?" He asked.

"We looked all over the restaurant as well as outside for her, then when we couldn't find her we immediately called her mom Brenda and told her she was missing."

"Was Kyla upset about anything, did she ever mention being afraid of anyone. Did she ever express concern for her safety, anything like that?" Greg asked.

"No, Kyla is always so happy and bubbly, and she never mentioned being afraid." Reese said.

"Can you think of anyone that would want to hurt her?" Greg asked.

"No, not at all, everyone loves Kyla." Reese said

"Can you girls think of anything else that might help us find her, even something that seems insignificant could potentially be a huge help in finding her." Greg said.

"I'm sorry Mr. Sanders but I don't think there is anything else." Reese said.

"I don't think so either." Shelley said. Then she added "Please find her, all three of us are best friends, we have known each other since grade school, the three of us are more like sisters than friends."

"Yes, please do whatever you can to help her." Reese said.

Greg noticed tears were in both of their eyes.

"My team and I will do our absolute best to bring your friend home." He promised then he added "if you girls think of anything else that might help would you please let me know?"

"Yes of course." Reese said and Shelley nodded.

"Girls there is one more thing that I need your help with." He said.

"Anything." Both girls said simultaneously.

"We have surveillance video from Burger 17, would be willing to take a look at it?"

"Yes" both girls said immediately.

Greg felt that the girl's concern for their friend was genuine; all they wanted was their friend back safe and sound. And as he got up to leave he made a mental note to himself that the girls had kept their stories straight about the events of that evening, they had told him the same thing that they had told Mrs. Hamilton. Greg knew what they had told Mrs. Hamilton because of what Catherine had relayed to him and the rest of the team when she first introduced them to this case, and from his experience Greg knew that when people kept their stories straight they were usually telling the truth. When Greg, Reese, and Shelley walked out into the hallway the girls immediately saw Brenda Hamilton walking with Nick towards the video viewing room and went running towards her.

"This is all my fault, if I hadn't suggested she stay and watch our stupid purses none of this would be happening." Reese said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Reese this is not your fault." Brenda said.

"Yes it is." She said adamantly.

Brenda wrapped her arms around her and looked her in the eye "Reese, blaming yourself is not going to help Kyla, you have to keep it together ok, for Kyla's sake."

"Ok" Reese said wiping her eyes.

Nick and Greg watched this heart-wrenching scene, they looked at one another and shook their heads sadly.

As much as Nick did not want Reese blaming herself for what happened he knew that time was of the essence and so in a calming voice he said "Why don't we all go take a look at that video?"

They nodded and followed the two CSI'S into the viewing room. Nick started the surveillance video.

"Do any of you recognize that guy with Kyla?" Nick asked.

"No." Brenda said quietly with tears streaming down her face.

"I do." Shelley said immediately.

"So do I." Reese said.

Brenda immediately turned to face her daughter's friends "Who is it girls?" She asked frantically.

"That's Tim Johnson, he goes to school with us." Shelley said.

**To Be Continued.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Missing **

**Chapter 3**

"Do either of you girls know where Tim Johnson lives?" Nick asked.

The girls both shook their heads no.

"Do you have his contact information?"

Again the girls shook their heads no, but then Reese spoke up. "I do know his parents names though." She said.

"What are they?" Nick asked grabbing a pen and a notepad out of his pocket.

"Richard and Victoria Johnson." She answered.

"How do you know that?" Shelley asked her friend with a surprised look on her face.

"Tim's brother Alex is on the football team and his parents often help out with ticket sales as well as merchandise sales at the games." She answered.

"Thanks Reese, that's a huge help." Nick said, then he added "What else do you know about this guy?"

"Nothing really, he is in my chemistry class but we never talk or anything." Reese said.

"I don't even have a class with him so the only time I ever see him is in the hallway walking to class and stuff, sorry." Shelley said.

"That's alright, you girls have really helped us out, if you think of anything else let me know will you?" Nick asked.

"Sure." Reese said.

"Of course" Shelley added.

With that the girls and Brenda left leaving Greg and Nick in the room alone.

Nick turned to Greg "I have an idea, come on." Nick said dashing out of the room with Greg right on his heels.

Nick went into another room and grabbed a phone book. He began to flip through it rapidly.

"Look at this, there is only one listing in the phone book for Richard and Victoria Johnson, and their address is right around the corner from the high school the girls go to, it has to be them." Nick said. He then took his phone out of his pocket.

"Who are you calling?" Greg asked.

"Catherine, I need her to get me a warrant to search their house." Nick replied.

An hour later Catherine told Nick some disturbing news. "Sorry Nicky, the judge wouldn't grant us the warrant to search the Johnson house."

"What do you mean he wouldn't issue the warrant, we have the kid on surveillance video driving off with a girl who is now missing." Nick said angrily.

"I'm sorry Nicky he said we didn't have enough for it to be granted, if it were up to me you would have the warrant in your hand." Catherine replied.

"Well I'm going over to the house anyway, maybe they will willingly let me look around." Nick said.

"Take Sara with you." Catherine instructed.

"Will do, later boss." Nick said hanging up.

He hurried to find Sara. He found her in the break room pouring herself some much needed coffee.

"Hey Nick, want some coffee?" She asked with a smile when she saw him walk in. "No thanks, come on lets go." Nick said.

"Where are we going?" Sara asked, looking as if she didn't want to go anywhere other than to the chair that was on the other side of the break room.

"To the Johnson house."

Sara sighed as she got a lid for her coffee and followed Nick out of the room. When they got to the house Sara was just about to ring the doorbell when Nick tapped her on the shoulder.

She looked at him and he pointed to something in the driveway. "Look that is the same type of car that we saw in the surveillance video." He said, feeling his blood start to boil.

"Good eye." Sara commented as she rang the doorbell.

A man that looked to be in his late forties answered the door.

"Mr. Johnson, I am Nick Stokes and this is Sara Sidle we are with the Las Vegas crime lab, is your son Tim home, we would like to ask him a couple of questions."

The man looked perplexed but he let the CSI'S in.

"Tim, come down here please." Richard Johnson called.

A boy came down the stairs.

"Tim these investigators would like to speak with you." His father said giving his son a look that seemed to say _what have you done?"_

"Hi Tim, my name is Sara Sidle and this is Nick Stokes, we would like to ask you a few questions." Sara said offering him a slight smile.

"Hi" Tim said tentatively.

"Tim, do you know a girl named Kyla Hamilton?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, I know Kyla"

"How well do you know her?" Nick asked.

"We go to school together, but I don't know her all that well." He answered.

"Did you know she is missing?" Nick asked.

"No I didn't know, that's terrible."

Nick could see the beads of sweat starting to fall from Tim's forehead.

"Do you have any idea where she is?" Nick asked.

"I just told you I didn't even know she is missing, why would I know where she is?" Tim asked, sounding irritated.

"Don't get upset, nobody is accusing you of anything, we are just trying to question everyone so we can find her." Nick lied.

"Tim have you been to Burger 17 recently?" Sara asked.

"No" Tim said.

"Do you mind if we take a look around?" Nick asked.

"Do you have a warrant?" Richard Johnson asked.

"No sir, but if Tim doesn't know where Kyla is what would be the harm in letting us look around?"

"You can come back and look around when you have a warrant." Richard said with his voice rising slightly.

Nick nodded and said "Alright."

Then he and Sara left the house. Sara had almost reached the door of the Denali when she realized Nick wasn't with her. She turned around and saw Nick walking in the other direction. She decided to follow him. Nick stopped walking when he got to the trash can.

"We don't need a warrant to search in the trash." Nick said with a grin.

Sara grinned back as Nick opened the lid. Near the top of the pile Sara found something useful.

"Nick" She said.

Nick looked at her, she was holding a piece of paper. He took the paper from her hands and looked at it

"A receipt for Burger 17 and the date matches the date that Kyla disappeared." He said, he could hardly keep the excitement out of his voice.

They did a little more digging in the trash can and Nick found something and he couldn't believe his eyes. It was a notebook, every page was filled with colorful drawings of a beautiful girl, a girl strikingly similar to Kyla. In the last page of the notebook there was a drawing of the same girl, just like all the other pages but there was one difference, the word bitch was written in huge letters across the girls' entire face.

"Sara" he said handing her the notebook with a stunned expression on his face. Sara flipped through the notebook and she was equally as shocked.

"This doesn't look good for Kyla." She said.

"No it doesn't." Nick agreed.

They quickly bagged the receipt and the notebook.

They found nothing else of value to them in the trash can so they hurriedly got back into their Denali and headed back to the lab. On the way there Nick called Catherine and filled her in about what he and Sara had discovered. He again told her to try obtain a warrant, for not only the house but the car as well and she promised him she would. This time Nick was very confident that the judge would grant it. When they got back to the lab Nick dropped the evidence off to be analyzed and headed to the break room. He grabbed a bottle of water in the fridge and took two aspirin, Grissom wasn't the only one that got migraine headaches. He took a seat and began to rub his temples. A gentle knock on the door made him look up. Catherine was standing in the door way with a smile, but her smile faded when she saw Nick's face.

"Nicky are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just have a headache." He said.

She grinned "well this will make you feel better." She extended a piece of paper out to him. "Here's your warrant." She said.

Nick sprang out of his chair, his headache was all but forgotten. Soon the entire team, except Sara was racing to the Johnson house. Catherine had instructed Sara to stop at Kyla's house to retrieve something with Kyla's sent on it so cadaver dogs could be used if necessary and then Sara would meet everyone over at the Johnson's. With his team behind him Nick pounded on the door. Mr. Johnson answered and looked dismayed to once again see Nick on his doorstep.

"Here is our warrant, we need everyone in the residence to step outside please." Nick said coldly handing him the warrant.

The man read the warrant, called his family downstairs and they went outside as they were instructed to do. Greg and Ray searched the basement and Nick and Catherine took Tim's room. When Sara arrived a few minutes later Catherine told her to search the backyard.

"Make sure you look for disturbances in the soil, just in case he.." Sara nodded, she knew what Catherine was getting at, there was no need to continue. She made her way to the backyard.

In the basement Ray discovered a huge box that was laying on its side. He looked in it and didn't like what he saw. There was something tall in the box that was covered in a white cloth.

"Greg" Ray said motioning him to come over to where he was standing. Greg looked in the box, and the look on Greg's face told Ray that Greg was thinking the same thing he was.

"Oh no." Greg said.

Ray grabbed the cloth. "On the count of three?" he asked and Greg nodded.

"One." Ray said.

"Two." Greg added.

"Three." Ray said as he yanked the sheet off.

The two investigators breathed a sigh of relief when all they found under the cloth was the family's Christmas tree. They didn't find anything in the basement related to Kyla, and neither did Sara in the backyard. Nick and Catherine hit pay dirt in Tim Johnson's room though. When Nick opened the closet his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Taped on the closet wall were several drawn pictures of Kyla much like what Nick had found in the notebook in the trash can. In a couple of the pictures Tim had drawn himself in the pictures as well.

"It's like some kind of sick shrine." Catherine commented, and Nick nodded in disgust.

Catherine dug through the closet, and found a pile of notebooks. She snapped a couple of pictures of them before picking one up. In it there were several love poems and more drawings of Kyla. She and Nick flipped through all the notebooks, and in the last one there was a pencil glued down to one of the pages. There was a note above the pencil that read _"Kyla I saw you drop this in the hallway, I was going to give it back to you but since your beautiful hands touched it I decided to keep it as a souvenir." _

"This kid has serious problems." Nick said.

"That's a major understatement." Catherine agreed.

"Hey look at this." Nick said, holding up a pair of sneakers he found on the floor of the closet. On the bottom of one of the shoes there was sand.

"Maybe Hodges can tell us something about the sand." He said hopeful.

He flipped the shoe over looking for a size.

"He wears a size 10 shoe, that could be helpful down the road." Nick said and Catherine nodded.

They bagged everything that they had found so it could be transported back to the lab.

When the team had finished searching the house they headed back to the lab. The Johnson's car was being towed to the lab so it could be searched as well. Once back at the lab Nick took everything to Hodges so he could analyze it while Sara and Greg searched the Johnson's car. On the passenger seat Sara found something.

"Hey Greg, what city do we live in?" She asked.

Greg raised an eyebrow at her "Vegas, why?" He asked.

She gave him one of her famous Sidle smiles "That's fitting because I just hit the jackpot." She said.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"A blonde hair, it's the same color as Kyla's."

"Nice" Greg said with a smile of his own.

They finished up searching the car, they didn't find anything else useful but the hair could prove very valuable in finding Kyla, if not at the very least it could help convict Tim Johnson of her kidnapping, that is if it really was Kyla's hair. Sara hurriedly took the hair to DNA to be compared to Kyla's hair.

Not long after that Tim Johnson was brought in for questioning, Nick wanted to conduct the interview.

"Tim, you have to tell me what happened to Kyla, because if I have to figure it out on my own it isn't going to be good for you." Nick said, trying to get the kid to talk.

"I already told you, I don't know what happened to her."

"Now we both know that isn't true."

"Yes it is true."

"Tim we have you and Kyla on surveillance video leaving Burger 17, Kyla got into your car, and you drove off with her. Now tell me what happened. If something happened that was an accident, tell me, I can help you"

Tim looked as if he was going to vomit. "Alright, alright, I lied, I did go to Burger 17 and I did see Kyla. And you are right, she did get into my car, she asked me for a ride home and so I gave her a ride."

"So let me get this straight, she asked you for a ride home, and you gave her a ride, and after she gets out of your car she just disappears?" Nick asked, he didn't believe a word of that story, there was absolutely no evidence that indicated Kyla had made it home from Burger 17.

"Why would Kyla ask you for a ride when she was with her friends?" Nick asked.

"I don't know, but she did, and when she got out of my car, she was just fine."

"Did you actually see her go into her house?" Nick asked.

"No, I just let her out of my car and drove off, I didn't watch her go in."

"What a gentleman." Nick said sarcastically. It took every once of strength Nick had to not reach across the table and smack him.

"Look, can I go now?" Tim asked sounding annoyed.

"Do you know anything else about what happened to Kyla?" Nick asked.

"No"

Nick sighed "You're free to go." He said.

Tim gave Nick an evil smirk as he walked out of the interrogation room. _What a punk_ Nick thought as he watched him leave. Nick knew he was lying but he needed a way to prove it and so he left the lab and got into his Denali. Nick knew this was a long shot but it was worth a try. He drove over to the Hamilton house and knocked on the door. Brenda quickly answered the door.

"Mr. Stokes, did you find her yet?" She asked immediately.

"No, Brenda listen, Tim Johnson claims he gave her a ride home from Burger 17."

"That lying bastard, he did not, if he did she would be here now." She said as tears started to well in her eyes. The look on her face showed a mix of sadness and anger.

Nick put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Brenda, I don't believe him either, but I need a way to prove it, do you have any security cameras or anything?" Nick asked.

The tears begin to stream down her face "no, I was going to get a security system so many times but never got around to it, oh god why didn't I? It's just the two of us living here, I should have done everything I possibly could to keep us safe, and I didn't, what kind of a mother doesn't do everything she can to protect her child from harm?"

By now the poor woman was bent over she was crying so hard. Nick was holding her, he was supporting all of her weight, he was pretty sure that had let go of her she would have fallen over.

"Brenda, this is not your fault, you did nothing wrong. It's going to be alright, I just have to find another way to prove he is lying that's all." Nick said.

All of a sudden she quit crying and stood up straight. "I just remembered the neighbor across the street has a security system, come on, hurry." She said as she grabbed Nick's arm and raced across the street.

Before Nick knew it she was banging on the door as loud as she could. An elderly man answered the door.

"Brenda, what's wrong?" the man asked, seeing the terrified expression on her face.

"Lyle, Kyla is missing we need to see your security camera's immediately." Brenda said.

"What?" the man asked, Brenda spoke so quickly the man didn't understand a word she had said, so Nick stepped in.

"Sir, my name is Nick Stokes, I'm with the Vegas crime lab, Kyla is missing and I am investigating her disappearance and it would really help me out if I could take a look at your security cameras.

"My God, Brenda I am so sorry." Lyle said, and to Nick he said "Yes of course you can take a look at my cameras.

"Thank you sir." Nick said stepping into the house with Brenda right on his heals. The man led them to where the videos were.

"I have to be honest with you, my daughter had that installed for us, I don't know how to use it." Lyle said.

"That's alright, I think I can figure it out if I mess with it for a minute." Nick said.

Luckily it was a fairly basic set up and Nick figured it out without much of a problem. They were just about to watch the video when an elderly woman came into the room.

"What's going on Lyle?" She asked.

"Joanne, Kyla is missing, and this young man is trying to find her, he asked if he could look at our cameras."

The woman gasped and immediately went to Brenda's side.

"Hi Ma'am, I'm Nick Stokes." Nick said extending a hand out to her.

"I'm Joanne, it's nice to meet you." She said shaking his hand.

Nick smiled then turned his attention back to the video. "Alright, this is around the time that he supposedly brought her home." Nick said staring at the video.

Just as he and Brenda had thought, he lied, he never brought her home. They watched the video once more just to make absolutely sure, and again, no Kyla.

This was too much for Brenda to take, "Oh my god, what has he done with my baby, where is she." She was sobbing so hard, she was once again doubled over.

Joanne wrapped her arms around her "It's alright, she'll be alright, come on into the kitchen and I'll make you some tea." Joanne offered, leading a devastated Brenda out of the room.

Once she was out of the room Nick let out a sigh and shook his head.

"Thank you for your help sir." Nick said to Lyle.

"No problem, I hope you find Kyla, she is such a nice girl. When my wife and I go out of town Kyla feeds and waters our dog, and she does it for free, we always offer to pay her but she never takes the money." Nick smiled at the elderly man and then he walked to the door.

"Thanks again for your help." He said as he grabbed the door handle.

"Don't mention it, if we can help in any other way please let us know."

"Thank you, I will." Nick said before leaving the house and getting back into his Denali.

Nick hit the steering wheel with his fist in frustration then he laid his head against the head rest, closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He kept his eyes closed a couple of minutes and then his cell phone started buzzing, indicating he had a text message. It was from Hodges and it read: _Got the results about the sand you found on the shoe, come see me for more details_.

Nick immediately started the Denali and raced back to the lab. He was literally running through the lab hallway. He almost ran right into Sara.

"Hey Nick where's the fire?" Sara asked.

"Sorry Sara, I'm in a hurry because Hodges has results on the flower I found on the bottom of Tim's shoe."

"Good, and did you know that the hair that Greg and I found in Tim's car does in fact belong to Kyla, that proves she was in his car." Sara said.

"No I didn't know we got the results on that yet, thanks Sara." He said as he again started running down the hallway.

When he finally reached Hodges' lab, he was out of breath.

"Nick, I have never seen you this eager to see me." Hodges commented with a smirk.

"The results Hodges." Nick said impatiently.

"Alright, I did some research about the sand that was on your suspect's shoe, because as you know I always aim to please."

"Hodges" Nick said impatiently crossing his arms.

"Ok, ok, the only place this type of sand exists in Nevada is a small patch of the desert not far from Vegas, and this sand is not found in any of the states neighboring Nevada."

"How far outside of Vegas?" Nick asked.

"About a half hour, and there is only about a 15 mile stretch where it appears."

Nick's moral was rising with every word Hodges said.

"Do you have a map for me to look at?" Nick asked.

"I thought you might ask me that, hold on a minute." Hodges answered as he left the room.

He appeared just a couple minutes later with a big map. "According to my research, the sand can be found in this area." He made a big circle on the map.

"Thanks Hodges, you have been a huge help."

"That's just the way I roll." Hodges said.

Nick rolled his eyes, rolled up the map, and dashed out of the room. He ran to the break room, grabbed 3 bottles of water and rushed outside. He quickly went and got in the Denali, this was urgent, they had no evidence that Kyla was dead, and if she was alive she might not have much time left. As he left the parking garage of the lab he called Catherine and told her what Hodges had told him. Nick also told her that he was going to that area to look around.

"So you are going to the desert by yourself?" Catherine asked.

Nick could tell by the tone of her voice she didn't like the idea. "Yeah I'll be fine, this might not lead to anything but I wanted to check it out just to make sure."

"Well if you find something, call for backup before you do anything Nicky." She told him.

"I will, I'll talk to you later." Nick said and then he ended the phone call.

Nick turned on the radio and rocked out to some tunes. As he left the lights of Vegas and entered the desert he immediately noticed the increase in temperature. The Denali thermometer read 121 degrees, but Nick had the air conditioning cranked up so he was actually quite comfortable. He glanced at the map Hodges had given him. "I should be getting close." He said out loud. He drove for a few more miles then something caught his eye, there were tire tracks off the road in the sand. He looked up and saw an abandoned storage shed. Nick immediately pulled off the road and drove up to the shed. He grabbed the three bottles of water and got out of the Denali. He immediately noticed two sets of footprints, one he estimated to be about a size 10. Nick remembered the sole of the shoe the sand was on, the footprints seemed to match that sole. He started to quicken his pace and then he remembered Catherine's warning about back up, he contemplated what to do for a split second and then said out loud "Screw it, I don't have time." He went to the door of the shed, and it had a lock on it, he tried to push the door open but it wouldn't budge. He was just about to run back to his car to grab his battering ram when he felt a hard blow across the back of his head, and then everything went black.

**To Be Continued….**


	4. Chapter 4

**Missing **

**Chapter 4**

When Nick awoke it was dark, except for a small stream of light coming from a small window. The floor he was laying on was concrete, he guessed he was inside the storage shed but he couldn't be sure "_At least there are no ants_" he thought to himself. He noticed his head was throbbing, and when he touched it he felt something warm. He pulled his hand away and saw blood. "Wonderful" he mumbled. He also noticed how hot it was, he figured it had to be over 100 degrees. He laid there for a couple of minutes, trying to get his bearings. Then he heard a very faint moan. He turned his head and saw a girl lying on a bench in the corner, he recognized the girl immediately.

"Kyla" he said as he got up and went over to her.

Kyla immediately put her hands up to her face in a defensive motion.

"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Nick Stokes, I'm a crime scene investigator and my team and I have been looking for you." Nick said.

"Cop" Kyla mumbled.

Nick smiled. "Yes" he said.

Kyla put her hands down and relaxed.

"I am going to get you out of here." He promised.

The poor girl looked so exhausted, her hair was completely stuck to her head from the heat and she was very flushed. Nick wished he had water to offer her but he had dropped the bottles of water when he had been struck on the head.

Nick saw a door and got up to see if it would open, but he was dismayed to discover it was locked. The window would not work as an escape either because it was too high to reach, and even if Nick could reach it, it was way to small for him and Kyla to fit through. He dug for his phone in his pocket, but that was also useless, there was no service. Nick went to the other side of the room and ran at the door, he rammed into the door with his shoulder hoping it would open, but it did not and Nick collapsed to the floor in pain. "_That was stupid_" He told himself angrily, grabbing his injured shoulder. He managed to get up and walk over to Kyla and took a seat at the end of the bench.

"We aren't going to get out of here are we?" She asked weakly.

"Yes we are, my team will find us." Nick said confidently.

"Are you sure?" She asked skeptically.

"They found me once when I was kidnapped, and they will do it again." Nick said, firmly believing in his team.

"You were kidnapped once before?" Kyla asked in amazement.

"Yes." Nick said.

"What happened?" She asked sounding genuinely curious.

"I was kidnapped and buried alive by someone who had a grudge against the Las Vegas police department." Nick said. Kyla's eyes grew wide.

"And you didn't retire?" She asked.

Nick grinned "Nope, I'm a glutton for punishment."

Kyla gave him a slight smile. "It's so hot." She said, her voice barely a whisper, she looked very tired, and Nick guessed she was suffering from fairly severe dehydration.

Nick had to do something to help her, he didn't know how much longer she could last in the sweltering heat.

He cleared his throat and said "You know, when I was a young kid growing up in Texas I had to help my dad on the farm. It was often extremely hot and my dad taught me a sure fire way to beat the heat, would you like me to teach it to you?"

"Sure." She answered, at this point she would try anything.

Nick smiled "alright, he told me to close my eyes and think of some place really cold, and just keep thinking about that place, lets try it." Nick said.

She nodded.

"Alright, close your eyes." Nick instructed. She did and so he said "Alright, picture yourself on a ski slope, you are skiing down the hill and all of a sudden you fall. You're lying in the frigid snow, with the cold ripping through your clothes." Nick glanced at her, was it his imagination or did he see her shiver." He smiled triumphantly.

"Is it working?" He asked.

She smiled "Yeah." She said sounding somewhat surprised.

"Good." Nick said returning the smile.

Two more hours went by, Nick knew she was exhausted but he didn't want to let her go to sleep because he feared that if she did she may not wake up again, he had to keep her conscious.

"Kyla would you like to play a game?" He asked.

"What game?" She asked sounding curious.

"How about rock, paper, scissors?" He suggested.

"Ok." She said.

They played 10 games of rock, paper, scissors and Nick managed to lose every single time. He was a good sport about it though,

"My best friend and I use to play that all the time to settle all of sorts of arguments, I always lost when I played with him too." Nick laughed.

"What do you mean you use to play with him, you don't play with him anymore?" She asked.

For a split second Nick hung his head, and then he quickly looked her in the eye. "My best friend died a couple of years ago." He said and left it at that, he figured she didn't need to hear the horrible details, she was upset enough as it was.

"I'm so sorry." She said genuinely.

Nick offered her a slight smile "thank you." He said, and she just smiled.

Another 3 hours past and Kyla was growing weaker by the minute.

"Hang in there Kyla, they'll find us soon." He said.

"Nick, would you do me a favor?" She asked.

"Sure." He answered.

"When you get out of here tell my mom I love her more than anything."

"You can tell her yourself the next time you see her." He said with a slight smile.

"I probably won't get to see her again, so just promise me you'll tell her."

"I promise." He said and then quickly added "But she would so much rather hear that from you, so you have to hang on. Just hang in there, do it for your mom."

She gave him a little smile "I'll try, I promise." She said.

"Good." Nick answered.

Her pretty blue eyes suddenly filled with tears. "Why would Tim do this?" She asked.

Nick wanted to ask her questions about her kidnapping but he did not want to upset her further.

The young girl seemed to read his mind "It wasn't for sex, he didn't rape me, he didn't even try too." She said as tears begin to run down her face.

Nick didn't know how to answer her question so all he said was "Sometimes people are just evil, and they do horrible things to good people."

Kyla didn't know what to say so she just nodded. It was then that they heard a car door.

"Oh god, he's coming back." Kyla said with complete terror in her voice. She clutched Nick's arm.

"It's alright." He told her. He stood up, and stood in front of her, ready to defend her the best he could.

"Nicky." He heard Catherine scream.

"Nick." Sara's voice followed.

He quickly ran and banged on the door. "In here." He called frantically.

"Hang on Nicky we're going to get you out of there." Catherine said, sounding very relieved.

"Nick, back away from the door." He heard Greg say.

Nick moved and seconds later the door burst open with a thunderous thud. The entire CSI team, several other members of law enforcement as well as paramedics ran through the now open doorway.

"Are you alright?" Catherine asked, grabbing his hands.

"I'm fine, but she needs paramedics immediately." Nick said nodding towards Kyla.

The paramedics rushed to her side. They got her on a stretcher and took her to the awaiting ambulance outside. Once they had her loaded into the ambulance Nick jumped in the back with her.

"I'm going to stay with her. As soon as you are able to get cell service call Brenda" Nick said looking over his shoulder at Catherine.

Before Catherine had a chance to respond one of the paramedics shut the door and then they were off to the hospital.

"Where's my mom?" Kyla asked Nick weakly as she clutched his hand.

"Don't worry she'll meet us at the hospital." Nick said with a comforting smile on his face.

Nick was correct, just minutes had past after he and Kyla had arrived at the hospital Brenda Hamilton burst through the hospital doors.

"How is she?" She asked frantically, literally running at Nick.

"I'm not a doctor, so I can't say anything about her medical condition but I can tell you that she was awake and coherent on the ride over here, and she asked about you."

Brenda breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"She really loves you." Nick said.

Brenda smiled and tears filled her eyes "I know, and I love her more."

Nick offered her a nod of understanding and a smile.

Just then a doctor appeared "Are you Kyla's mother?" He asked.

"Yes, how is she?" Brenda asked immediately.

"You're daughter is severely dehydrated and so we are giving her fluids through an IV, and she is suffering from heat exhaustion which we are treating by applying cool wash cloths to her skin." The doctor explained.

"Is she going to be alright?" Brenda asked sounding scared.

The doctor smiled "She should be just fine, we'll keep her overnight and possibly tomorrow but I see no reason she shouldn't make a full recovery."

"Oh thank God." Brenda said. Then she asked "Can I see her?"

"Yes, follow me." The doctor said.

Brenda turned to Nick and said "I can not thank you enough for what you and your team did for my daughter."

Nick smiled "We were just doing our jobs." he said humbly.

"Yes but you did so in a kind and compassionate manner, you truly cared about finding Kyla. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you"

"Don't mention it." Nick said.

Brenda smiled and then she turned and followed the doctor so she could go see her daughter.

Nick sat there lost in his thoughts until Catherine's voice made him jump. Nick looked up and Catherine was sitting next to him and Ray, Greg and Sara were standing around him.

"Sorry Nicky, I didn't mean to scare you." Catherine said, and then she asked "How's Kyla?"

"She's gonna be just fine." Nick answered with a smile.

"Good." Catherine said.

"How are you?" Sara asked, concerned for her friend, Sara knew all too well what it was like to be kidnapped, and thinking that Nick had to experience yet another kidnapping made her shutter.

"I'm fine." Nick assured her.

"I think you should get checked out by a doctor just to be sure." Sara said.

"Sara, believe me, I'm fine." Nick insisted.

"I agree with Sara, you should go get checked out, it's better to be safe than sorry." Catherine said.

Nick sighed but just to avoid further arguing he agreed.

As it turned out Nick needed 3 stitches to close the wound on the back of his head, and he had a sprained shoulder but it was nothing serious.

When he was finished getting his stitches Catherine gave him a ride home, and then he went straight to bed.

A couple of nights later Nick felt as good as new, and was back at work. At the beginning of his shift he and the rest of the team were in the conference room and they were just about to receive their case assignments for the night when there was a knock on the door. They all turned around and saw Brenda and Kyla standing in the doorway and Kyla was holding something in her hands.

"Hi, I just wanted a chance to meet all of you and personally thank you for everything you did for me. There are no words to truly express how grateful I am to all of you for saving my life. And I would also like you to know that before all of this happened I wanted to study journalism in college, but now I want to study criminal justice. I want to be able to help someone like all of you helped me. I hope I can be half the CSI you all are." She smiled and then added "I made cookies for you guys, they are double chocolate chip, I hope you like them."

She laid them on the table. And then she walked around and gave every member of the team a huge hug.

When she got to Nick she whispered "I'm really glad didn't retire."

Nick grinned at her "Me too."

After everyone had gotten a hug she thanked them all once more, as did Brenda.

Catherine told her "don't be a stranger, and when you graduate college come back here and apply for a job, we are always looking for compassionate CSI'S and I think you would fit that very well."

"Yeah and that way you could stay close to your mom." Nick added.

"That sounds great to me, thanks so much." Kyla said flattered.

After that Kyla and her mother walked out of the room with Brenda's arm around Kyla's shoulder. The CSI'S smiled at that, it was a happy ending, something unfortunately they did not get to experience often.

After they had left Nick reached over and grabbed one of the cookies.

"Oh my god these are heavenly, she should forget her career as a CSI and become a baker."

His friends laughed at him.

Then Catherine gave them their assignments for the night. Nick and Sara got a 419 in one of the hotels downtown and Catherine, Greg, and Ray got a double 419 in the desert. The CSI'S all stood up and left to go to their respective crime scenes, but before leaving Nick grabbed one more cookie.

**The End! Thanks for reading**


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